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“Sit Down!” is another all purpose game. Kids stand in a big circle. One student is “it” in the middle with a pointer (or just his finger). “It” gets to decide what number we start counting on to count by 10s. He might pick 7. So “It” starts pointing at one child at a time as the whole class counts by tens starting at 7. So we count 7, 17 27, 37, 47, 57, 67, 77, 87, 97 and if you are the student pointed to when it is over 100, you “SIT DOWN”. The whole class says “SIT DOWN” and then the game continues, starting with 7, 17 and so on until you again reach 100 and SIT DOWN. When a student sits down, they just sit in their place in the circle and they continue to help the class count. You do this until the whole class is sitting with just one per son standing. Then the last one down is “It” and you start again. “It” picks a new number to start with and you keep going. This game could be down with numerous concepts (like saying the alphabet, state names, etc.), or skip counting by any number (not just 10). Kids especially like it if teacher plays and has to sit down too.

This is one of my favorite games. This works for reading, math or anything you can write on a card with an answer (great for spelling words, sight words, letter sounds, math facts, states/capitals, etc).

The pictures are of our spelling words for the week. Kids get in groups of three or four. One student does not have a fly swatter, while the others each have one. The student without a fly swatter is the reader. Spread the words (or math fact cards, or whatever) on the ground. The reader reads any word. The other kids try to be the first to swat the word. Whoever swats the word first keeps the word. After the words are gone, the fly swatters get passed to the left. If you don’t have the fly swatter, you become the reader. Be sure to set up rules before the game that if someone intentionally swats another student with the fly swatter they sit out a round, or whatever your class rule would be. For a whole class experience put the words on the board and give each team one fly swatter. Kids love this game!

My friend over at Cultivating Questioners had this to say about the fly swatter game: “I divide my whiteboard into two sections and write words or numbers on the board randomly. I then divide the students into two teams. I have one person from each team step forward with the fly swatter in hand. I then call out a problem or word and the students run to the front of the room and slap the correct answer in their team’s section. They love it!”

I first heard this song in Spanish, and it CRACKED ME UP! It’s an international sensation, and it’s called “The Little Chick Cheep” (in English). It’s similar to the Old McDonald song in that it uses animal sounds, but it uses sounds of a hen, a rooster, a turkey, a pigeon, a cat, a dog, a goat, a sheep, a cow and a bull (teaching onomatopoeia!). It would make a great brain break, since it’s only 2:47 minutes long and kids everywhere LOVE it! Have your class make up actions to it! You could even use the animals as characters in a shared writing, to teach dialogue, etc. So without further ado, I give you the Little Chick Cheep!

I recently saw this picture on Pinterest. I couldn’t follow the link very far, because I wasn’t a member of acvitityconnection.com, but I was inspired. Here’s my idea:

Set up: Make a box like this, with varying sized holes in the front. Smaller holes are worth more points. Then set it up in your classroom, with masking tape line on the ground, denoting where students should stand before they putt.

Game play: Group students for the review. Ask a review question, and have each team write down their answer. At the same time, have all groups reveal their answer. Any team who gets the answer right, gets to send 1 person to putt once to try to earn points. At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins!

I’ve tried numerous games like this with my 6h graders and they loved them! It disguised reviewing for the end of the year tests so the kids had a blast and we got through tons of math and science review questions!

Games are always a fun way to get to know other people and help break the ice. Here are 3 suggestions for your first day of school:

Ooga Booga: Have all company members stand in a circle with their arms around each other’s shoulders. All participants will look down at the ground and say, “Ooga Booga, Ooga Booga, Ooga Booga, look!” and look up at another person in the circle on the word “look”. If two participants look each other in the eye, they will leave the group and talk to each other. Repeat the game until two to three people are remaining. Make it fun by giving the participants a fun topic to talk about. For example: “Talk about your favorite music/ice cream flavor/vacation.”

Do I Know You? Begin by numbering the company off by ones and twos. Have all ones create a circle, and have all twos stand in the middle of the circle. Have all twos find out a fact about another number two. Then each two will find a number one and tell each other the fact about the other number two. Ones will then go around the circle and try to find the person whom the fact is about by saying, “Do I know you? You like to read/are a twin,” etc. When all ones have found the person they are looking for, play another round. Remind them to ask and remember names.

Two Truths and a Lie: In groups of three to eight (depending on how much time you want to devote to this exercise), have individuals take turns making three statements about themselves—two that are true and one that is not. After an individual makes three statements, the other youth in the group discuss among themselves which statements seem most plausible and which one is most likely to be the “lie.” After giving the group time to talk about their decisions, the individual who made the statements not only tells which one is not true but also provides a bit more background about the truths.

Aura: Participants will get into pairs and face each other. They will place their palms together between them, a little above shoulder height. Both of them will close your eyes, pull their palms apart (approximately 12 inches), and turn around in their spot three times simultaneously. Their goal is to reconnect palms after spinning while keeping their eyes closed.

Stinger: Have the group members form a circle and close their eyes. A Teacher circles the group and selects a “stinger” by squeezing an individual’s shoulder. The group members then open their eyes and spend time introducing themselves to others while shaking hands (and trying to spot the stinger). The stinger tries to eliminate everyone without getting caught. The stinger strikes by ”injecting poison” with an index finger while shaking hands. A person stung may not die until at least five seconds after he/she is stung. The more dramatic the death, the better! When someone thinks he/she has discovered who the stinger is, he/she may announce that he knows. If he gets a “second” from someone else in the group within 10 seconds, the two of them may make an accusation. If the person does not get a second, he/she must wait until after another person dies to challenge again. If another person does step forward to second the challenge, both point to whoever they think it is on the count of three. If they do not point to the same person, or they both point to the wrong person, they are both automatically dead. If they select the correct person, the stinger is dead and the game is over.

Mumble Jumble: Before the activity begins, a Teacher will cut up a few pictures into puzzle pieces. Each group member will grab a piece of a puzzle from a bag. The group members will keep their puzzle piece to themselves until the Teacher says, “Go!” At this point, the group members will try to locate the other members of the group with the pieces to form the appropriate pictures. Whichever group does it first, wins. This is a good activity for breaking into smaller groups.

Hagoo: Separate the group into two even groups and have them stand in two separate lines (shoulder to shoulder) facing each other. The two groups should be about three or four feet apart. The players at the opposite ends of each line are opponents. They will step out of the lines so they are facing each other and looking down the middle of the two rows (like an old cowboy shootoff). They will both say, “Hagoo,” and start to walk down the row toward each other. They must not break eye contact, and their object is to get to the opposite end of the line without laughing or smiling. When the players pass each other, they must continue to maintain eye contact. If a person breaks eye contact, laughs, or smiles, he then must join the end of the line of the opposing team. The teams can do or say any silly things to make the opposing player crack up, but they must be careful not to make their own player lose concentration. The teams may not touch another player. This process will continue until everyone has had a turn. The team with the most players at the conclusion of the game wins.

I recently saw a class playing this game outside. It’s called Streets and Alleys. This is definitely fast paced and will keep the kids running around a good bit. I couldn’t get a great picture, but I found an excellent description from a great website for kids games.

Before You Begin

15 or more players
Ages 7 and up

Go!

Three players will stand on the sidelines while the other players divide into 3 groups of the same number of kids (or very close to the same number).

Each team stands side by side, arms outstretched, and hold hands, to form 3 rows.

Each team faces front with about 5 feet between rows – this forms “streets”.

The players on the sidelines become the runner, the chaser and the game leader.

The runner lines up on the end of a street. The chaser lines up in front of the first row. The leader stands in front of the first row as well.

The leader shouts, “one, two, three, GO!” and the runner runs down the streets and the chaser chases her.

The leader can call out “alley” if she wants.

The players lined up in the rows, drop their arms, turn to their right and, with arms outstretched, hold hands with these other players. This forms “alleys”.

Players who are running and chasing have to run down the streets or alleys. They cannot duck under the other player’s arms.

The leader will continue to call out either streets or alleys and the players have to run that way.

Once the runner is caught, a new round begins with a new chaser, leader and runner.

If the runner is not caught after a preset number of minutes, that round is over.

Tip

Set time limits for each round depending on the number of players.

Keep it shorter if there are a large group of children playing.

Not a great picture (sorry!), but you can see the kids standing in a grid formation so they can turn to make the streets and alleys…